Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Verb Phrase 109. The verb phrase today is to
chip away so chip away at something. All right. Let's look at the note here. If
someone chips away at something , they lower, they lower the amount or make
progress on something. That's what we would say, a little at a time.
Okay. Or number two. When we say chip away, it could also mean to break
pieces off of something. So that's the idea of literally chipping away. So
that's where the idea came from. Remember a chip is a small piece of something
that's broken off. Like a paint chip or you had a little chip off the rock
basically. Since we say to chip away at something. All right. So let's look at
some examples here. Example number one. The second-place team was able to chip
away at the first-place teams lead this past month. The first-place team is only
ahead by three games now. Maybe at the beginning of the month the first-place
team was ahead by eight games and little by little throughout the month they were
gaining a little bit and maybe they gained like five games over a whole
month. Maybe you know, they gained about you know, one game per week or a
little bit better and by the end of the month, they rose. Suddenly they are only
three games behind the first-place team. So they chipped away at their lead. So we
could say this in all sports. Even in an individual game, if the team that's
losing is starting to catch up slowly. catching up to the you know, to the team
that's winning. To the score. They're chipping away at their lead you could
use it that way. Number two. We were able to chip away at
our competitors market share. Until we eventually surpassed them. Yes. We hear this
in business you know, if you have a competitor or a rival you could chip
away at their market share and maybe you could catch up eventually surpass it. if
you're you know if they were in the market first, and now you're trying to
chip away at the market share. Good. Three. The literal
one here. The literal meaning. The sculptor chipped away at that large
piece of marble until he created a beautiful work of art. So you know, like
Michelangelo or something you know, keep chipping away and eventually at the end
he has a beautiful statue. Okay. And the last one here. Each month I was able to
chip away at my debt. Until I finally paid it off. So maybe we got this big
number of a debt and little by little, each month you're paying it off. Paying
it off, paying it off. Maybe over a year or year and a half. Maybe you completely
paid it off. Okay anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it's clear. Thank you for your
time. Bye-bye.